CHAP. 458.—An ACT to provide for the working and keeping in
order the roads in the county of Spotsylvania.

Approved March 3, 1890.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That it shall be lawful for the county of Spotsylvania to
work and keep in repair highways, roads, and bridges, as
follows:

2. The board of supervisors in said county shall take
charge of and have worked and kept in repair all roads
and bridges heretofore or hereafter established, and for
this purpose are authorized and empowered to levy a road
tax not to exceed in any one year fifteen cents upon the
one hundred dollars of assessed taxable values in said
county.

3. The judge of the county court of Spotsylvania county,
the commonwealth’s attorney, and supervisor for each town-
ship shall compose a board to be known as the district
board, each township being represented by its own super-
visor, in conjunction with the said judge and common-
wealth’s attorney, constituting a board of three members,
whose duty it shall be to elect one road commissioner for
each township in the said county.
4. The said road commissioner, after being elected as
hereinbefore provided, shall qualify before the board of
supervisors by giving bond in the penalty of five hundred
dollars, with good personal security for the faithful per-
formance of his duty as hereinafter prescribed. It shall
be the duty of the said road commissioners to proceed at
once to lay off into road sections, not to exceed five miles
in any one section, all the roads in his township (said sec-
tions to be numbered ), and to apportion the hands thereon.
No hand shall be required to work more than two days of
ten hours each during one year.

5. When the roads have been laid off as provided in the
foregoing section, the district board shall elect three (un-
less in their judgment a less number will be sufficient)
competent and efficient overseers, whose duties each shall
be to take charge of such sections of road as the road com-
missioner shall allot him, and work and keep in good
repair, and see that all bridges are in safe condition, and
that the roads are kept free from obstruction, and shall
have the custody of all implements purchased by the road
commissioner, by order of the board of supervisors, for
use on the roads under-his care, and the same shall be ac-
counted for to his successor. Any commissioner or over-
seer, after having served two years, if his roads are in
proper and good repair, may resign by first giving notice
to the district board, and may vacate his office when his
successor has properly qualified. Each overseer shall
qualify before entering upon his duties by giving bond
and security for a faithful performance of his duties in a
penalty not less than three hundred dollars to the board
of supervisors.

6. It shall be the duty of each overseer to notify, bv
giving twenty-four hours’ notice to all the hands allotted
to his road sections, when and where they shall meet to
work said roads, and shall, with any funds appropriated
by the board of supervisors, hire hands to do such other
necessary work as cannot be done with the labor hereto-
fore provided; such hired hands shall not work at the
same time with the regular road hands as herein required
to work two days in each year; and the price to be paid
for each hand shall be the customary price paid for other
hands in the district where the work is done. The over-
seer shall superintend all laborers and direct their work,
counting ten hours for one day’s service. He shall, on the
first day of December or at the first meeting of the board
of supervisors thereafter, make a report under oath of all
money expended on his roads, the number of days worked,
percentage of work done by hired labor, price paid per
day, and the condition of all roads and bridges.

7. All male persons between the age of sixteen and sixty
years shall be liable to road service, and, upon being noti-
fied by the overseer, attend either in person or by suff-
cient substitute, with proper tools, and work the roads in
such manner and on such days as the overseer may di-
rect, not to exceed two days in any one year: provided,
however, that ministers of the gospel (who have charge of
a church and congregation) and persons who have lost a
leg or an arm, and persons living in an incorporated town
that provides for its poor and keeps its streets in order,
and such other persons as the district board shall exempt.
For every day on which there may be a failure to answer
such notice from the overseer seventy-five cents shall] be
paid to the overseer within twenty days thereafter by the
person in default, if a person of full age, and if a minor
by his parent or guardian. If the money is not paid
within the time specified the overseer shall make out a
ticket against the delinquent party or persons liable to
pay said fine, and said tickets, when placed in the hands
of the constable of his township or sheriff of the county,
shall have the force of an execution. The officer shall
proceed as in the collection of taxes and county levies.
Such officer shall have a fee of twenty-five cents, to be
paid at same time by the party in addition to the fine.
Such officer shall pay over to the overseer all fines col-
lected within thirty days after they come into his hands,
or return the accounts as insolvent when they cannot be
collected by levy. If the officer shall fail to make pay-
ment or return the claim as insolvent within sixty days
from the date he received it, he and his sureties on his
official bond shall be liable for such bond, whether col-
lected by him or not, to be recovered by the overseer by a
motion before a justice of the peace. Each overseer shall
return to the board of supervisors annually at their De-
cember meeting a list of all fines collected, names of all
parties fined, and disposition made of the fund.

8. Each overseer shall be paid one dollar per day for
each day of service actually rendered, and for a failure to
comply with the requirements of this act, or a failure to
keep the roads in as good condition as the means at his
command will enable him to do, he shall pay a fine of not
less than ten dollars nor more than fifty dollars, such fine
to be expended on the roads in his care.

9. All levies made and collected under this act shall be
collected and accounted for by the county treasurers as
other levies, and shall be paid out by the order of the
hoard of supervisors.

10. The board of supervisors shall keep a book, to be
known as the road-book, in which shall be kept an account
of the road tax levied in each township, and the amount
collected thereof, and how apportioned on the roads, and
shall apportion to each township all the funds collected
from that township as a road tax, out of which shal! be paid
the commissioner, the road overseer, and purchased price
of tools and implements, wages to hands, material, et
cetera: provided, that when new bridges are to be built or
new roads opened, an appropriation not to exceed twenty
per centum of the entire road tax collected may be ex-
pended therefor.

11. The commissioner of roads shall have charge of all
the roads in his township. It shall be his duty to see that
all roads in his township are of proper width, and in all
cases where the said roads are not of proper width, shall
notify the party trespassing, by written notice, to remove
such obstruction as lessens the legal width of said road,
and if the obstruction is not removed after reasonable
notice, not to exceed sixty days, he shall direct the over-
seer to remove such obstruction and recover from the tres-
passer the expenses and costs, by motion, before a justice
of the peace. He shall examine all roads in his township
not less than twice during each year, and see that all
bridges are kept in good order, and where bridges are over
streams that divide two townships, the commissioner of
each township shall act jointly, and bridges or repairs
shall be paid for by such township jointly, and said com-
missioner shall let and receive all bids or contracts for
work to be done in his township, and for his services he
shall receive twenty dollars per year.

12. Every petition for a new road, or to lay out, alter,
or change a public road, must be first presented to the road
commissioners of such townships as the road may be in,
who shall endorse thereon his approval or disapproval,
and his reasons theréfor, which petition shall then be laid
before the district board. Said board shall then elect three
discreet and competent citizens, who shall accompany the
county surveyor and view and make a full report concern-
ing such petition to the said board, which board shall then
order or reject said road, or change in said road, as in their
judgment is best for the public good. No public road shall
be less than thirty feet wide.

13. This act shall be in force from passage.